Playing a production of 'High School Musical' next week, what should I expect?

[Michael Currie]

Yeah, so last week I was asked to play for an amateur production of High School Musical in a month's time. I accepted for several reasons:
1. The guy doing MD is a close friend
2. I know some of the other guys doing it, a brilliant drummer and solid brass players (buds too)
3. It goes down as 'experience' on my University entry form for a music degree

I was just curious to see if anyone else had played for a stage production of it, what I should expect the music to be like etc. I have asked for minimal pay just to cover expenses e.g. my dad's petrol money etc.
I know that as it's amateur, it may be Northern Irish teen screeching out with their badly done American accents, but are there any good aspects of the show?

Thanks

[lojo]

Im sure some of the pros on here will comment soon

I did a few amateur shows years back (not HSM) but as a non reader I really had to do my homework, I spent hours working out the notes in the run up to rehearsals

I can say though, that it was a really amazing experience, it was amateur yes, but a high standard was expected


Re: High school musical , only seen the films, all be it 100 times with my daughter, I'm sure it will be lots of fun, hope it goes well for you

Edited April 25, 2011 by lojo

[Doddy]

I've not done High School Musical,but I've done plenty of other shows.
As long as you've got your reading together and you can follow the conductor you should be alright.

[quote name='lojo' post='1211050' date='Apr 25 2011, 05:34 PM']I did a few amateur shows years back (not HSM) but as a non reader I really had to do my homework, I spent hours working out the notes in the run up to rehearsals[/quote]

I've never done a show where that's even been an option. Usually it's band call(where you see the dots for the first time),1 maybe 2 rehearsals,opening night.
Not reading must be a nightmare if the MD has to make any cuts or anything.

[skej21]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1211108' date='Apr 25 2011, 06:44 PM']I've not done High School Musical,but I've done plenty of other shows.
As long as you've got your reading together and you can follow the conductor you should be alright.[/quote]

Big + 1

As long as you've got your reading together all should be fine.

If not, you want to pray that someone on here has a useful 'resource' that they can pass on to you.

As for the intensive research mentioned above. That's not going to help you much if you can't read to be honest. A few listens to get feel etc might be useful, but don't learn them all before turning up and then realise everything you've learnt is wrong. It'll confuse the sh!t out of you (and you're a bassist, not the MD... let him do all the hard work like structuring etc!)

Anyway, let us all know how it goes!

Break a leg.

Edited April 25, 2011 by skej21

[62P-Bass]

I played in a run of it a few years ago in Hammersmith. It was pretty well put together with some generic but effective writing, like all shows I guess. One thing you might find is that most of the pieces are pretty short. There's quite a few stings that are only one or two bars long and they can be quite tricky - blink and you'll miss 'em! Also the incidental/scene change type music is pretty short, as are the big production numbers. I guess they figure kids haven't got the attention span for anything longer. It's a bit of a shame though as just as you're settling into a groove it changes, or stops!

I'm sure you'll have fun though and it'll be great experience - good luck.

Andrew

[Gareth Hughes]

Hey Michael -

Good to see you here. Get the soundtrack to the show - the Broadway version, not the movie - and give it a good listen. Like skej21 said - don't bother with learning it yet - chances are quite a bit of what you end up playing will not be what's on the recording. For instance, sometimes the recorded tunes are in a different key than what's in the pad. Not fun transposing whilst trying to remember what cuts have been made for that tune. And all the others. So just work on your reading till then.

[Michael Currie]

Yeah, my reading should be fine (Gareth may dispute this), and we'll have 1 or maybe two band rehearsals, and a dress rehearsal before the two nights, it should be grand

[quote name='62P-Bass' post='1211306' date='Apr 25 2011, 11:14 PM']There's quite a few stings that are only one or two bars long and they can be quite tricky - blink and you'll miss 'em! Also the incidental/scene change type music is pretty short, as are the big production numbers.[/quote]

You mean like, the generic scene change music is in the live show? Like a playoff? I love that stuff!
The movie recording is all digital computer work, so I'll hunt down a soundtrack on Spotify somewhere, thanks!

[goblin]

I've not done HSM, but I know someone who has and apparently the music's quite good all things considered. I've been doing a couple of shows recently and provided you can read / know where the music's going, and can get on with the MD you can have a lot of fun with it. First one I ever did playing bass was Sweet Charity, and the MD was terrible and at that time, I wasn't a strong reader and I didn't have much fun with it, freebie or no freebie. Let's just say I can read very well now and I go into these things with an open mind. I'm playing for a production of Boogie Nights at the moment which is cheesier than stilton, but with just a 4 piece band (who're on stage and in costume), it's an absolute riot and I'll be sad when it's over

[scalpy]

I MDd this a few years back at the secondary school where I work. There is quite a bit of syncopation, if memory serves, that takes a bit of work, and the scene change music is very music trade show if you know I mean. The MD doesn't get a lot of time to cue for these bits so will probably have to have a script to hand. We had to do it "poised, up beat, play!" Of course it depends on the cast and how reliable they are as well. The 2 numbers that I remember took the most work were Get Your Head in the Game as the cast will expect it to sound like the sequenced version from the film, and it's hard to get the band sounding that clipped regardless of their experience, and Stick to the Status Quo, which is the big dance number to close the first half. There is a lot of dialogue over vamps and maintaining a strict tempo is very tricky, as there is a surprising amount of dynamic changes for what is essentially musical fluff. We managed to do the whole show with pupils for the band (no more than 16 years old), albeit a bit of drum programming here and there to keep it all together! The Disney stuff is always put together by the very best so expect the odd tricky bit!

As an aside, Billy Elliot is the hardest show I've had to put on...

[skej21]

[quote name='Michael Currie' post='1211732' date='Apr 26 2011, 03:17 PM']Yeah, my reading should be fine (Gareth may dispute this), and we'll have 1 or maybe two band rehearsals, and a dress rehearsal before the two nights, it should be grand [/quote]

If your reading is fine, then just chill out and do a bit of casual reading practice until you get the pad. Then (most importantly) enjoy doing the show!

P.s. If you need any practice resources 'relevant' to musicals (), just PM me and I'll pass on the stuff I've got

Edited April 26, 2011 by skej21

[lojo]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1211108' date='Apr 25 2011, 06:44 PM']I've never done a show where that's even been an option. Usually it's band call(where you see the dots for the first time),1 maybe 2 rehearsals,opening night.
Not reading must be a nightmare if the MD has to make any cuts or anything.[/quote]

As I said I am not pretending these were anything other than an amateur productions, I was given the music in advance and cassettes of the show songs (remember those) so I learnt them just like cover songs, and I managed then to keep up with the rest of the players, the songs were more like nursery rhymes compared to real productions but at the time it challenged me as I had been and still am, a non trained faker

20 years later and I still cant read

I had a lot of fun and would have loved to have had the skills to do this more professionally